Jul 09 2009
The Realm of the Ridiculous
There are days when I think the world with regards to finance, government, and the things that directly impact my life has gone utterly mad. And then, there are days when I know it to be a fact:
Canuck Kangaroo Court Condemns Seal Savers
Captain Alex Cornelissen and 1st Officer Peter Hammarstedt have now been judged by Nova Scotia Judge Jean Whalen of exercising radical and criminal compassion for baby seals slaughtered by the East Coast barbarian sealers.
…
This meant of course that they could not return to Canada to attend the trial in late April 2009. This was very convenient for Canada. The two could not return to Nova Scotia to defend themselves, so the judge ruled that they failed to appear and the trial was ordered to proceed without the defendants.
And surprise, surprise, the Judge ruled on June 30th, 2009 that both Alex and Peter have been found guilty of violating the “seal protection” regulations.
The sentencing for this horrific and dastardly offense will be delivered in September 2009. The maximum penalty is a $100,000 fine and/or 1 year in prison.
The penalty cannot be enforced outside of Canada and since both men are prohibited from returning to Canada for the rest of their lives than this means the sentence, whatever it will be, is irrelevant.
…
On the positive side for Sea Shepherd, the publicity generated from the 2008 arrest helped considerably in encouraging European Parliamentarians to vote for the bill to ban seal products into Europe.
In this case, Sea Shepherd may have lost a battle at sea and in the courts BUT we appear to have won the war. The economic damage inflicted upon the sealing industry is far greater than the economic impact on the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, especially considering the fact that the Society was planning to retire the Farley Mowat after the seal campaign anyways.
I know I have Canadian readers; I’m hoping you’ve expressed your outrage to the proper authorities over this absolutely insane waste of time and effort, all directed at protecting Canada’s right to slaughter baby seals whose end products are now banned from the EU anyway!
And congratulations to the crew of the Farley Mowat, to the redoubtable Mr. Mowat himself, and to all who participated in instigating this blow for justice for the seals.
Related posts:
Nobody would care about the baby seals if they weren’t “cute.” More baby calves are slaughtered every year than seals. The fact that the seal hunt garners this much attention while a war is going on and shows no signs of slowing down, the crippling effect the economy is going to have on 3rd world nations, etc etc. Seals are no where near extinction and if there were a hunting ban they would multiply until they became a “pest.” I find it sad that an animal has to be “cute” in order to get this kind of attention. Save the back rihno club a seal.
Hey Dave…
It’s called “charismatic megafauna”, and yeah, people only save what’s cute and furry. Try saving an endangered fish species sometime; it’s utterly thankless.
Don’t know if you’re a longtime reader or not, but you probably will have noticed that this is a boat blog, so I focus on marine issues. I rant about farming malpractice in my other blog, ElementalMom.
And it’s a logical fallacy to think that caring about one wrong in the world somehow diminishes a person’s ability to think about the other wrongs. It’s also a fallacy to say that seals would overbreed; ecology strives for balance absent man. (You can look up which fallacies yourself, if you’re motivated to do so).
Finally, clubbing a seal has nothing to do with black rhinos. I get your point without you throwing yet a third fallacy into your commentary. But if you’re paying attention, you’ll see that Sea Shepherd doesn’t focus just on the seals; they’re working against the rapine of the entire ocean; whales, seals, sharks, overfishing, poaching, and other forms of high seas evil.
You can care about many things, and you can fight on many fronts. Unless, of course, your heart is simply too small, but you’ve put three separate issues into your post, so I’m guessing there’s even room in yours. =)